Do not misrepresent PM’s story

unparalleled naivety that does not bode well for one so wont to pretend he has one of the best functioning brains in the country.
The public media have now joined the fray, misrepresenting the contents of the book to the extent of saying Tsvangirai wanted to take up arms to force himself into power after failing to outrightly win the 2008 Presidential election.

For all the brouhaha in the public media, it appears they have missed some of the juicy stuff in the book that Zimbabweans would be interested to know about.
In the legendary silence when the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission failed to announce Presidential election results, the Prime Minister says in his book that former State Security minister, Nicholas Goche called Hon Elton Mangoma to tell him that he (Goche) needed to talk about transitional mechanisms now that the MDC had won the election.
“According to Goche, Mugabe had agreed to step down and to ensure transfer of power, there was need for us to take some of their Zanu-PF winners into the coalition administration,” (pp484).

Now this is the juicy stuff those attacking the book should be putting into the public domain rather than complaining about petty typographical errors.
The Prime Minister is not writing about dead people, but senior officials and ministers who can be able to tell us if this is true or not.
Because the big news here is that if the Minister of State Security conceded defeat as alleged, there is no doubt therefore that Zanu-PF and its candidate were defeated outright and the run-off was contrived.
Firstly, Prof Moyo’s critique published last Sunday about the PM’s autobiography, “At the Deep End”, is not based on substance but on petty issues.

To criticise a book simply because of typos on the names of Sikwili Moyo and Milton Gwetu is to completely miss the point.
For Moyo, it is only him who has a functioning brain and everyone else is a moron.
And that is the running thread in his critique of the PM’s book, notwithstanding the fact that he has always made uncharitable comments anyway about the PM, who won a credible election on 29 March, 2008.

Proper discourse in his article is lost by his strange affinity to malign and vilify at every turn; to dig deep into the dark crevices for his usual hate language so that he can attack a man for simply telling his own story, in his own words and in his own style.
And I want to admit from the outset that it also invites one to dig deep into the same crevices for a few uncharitable home-truths about Moyo himself.

Prof Moyo posits that “the real Tsvangirai does not come out in his: “At the Deep End” – maybe because he cannot swim.”
It is pertinent to note that Moyo is not familiar with the deep end because he has always swum in shallow political waters.
Those who reside in shallow waters because of their treacherous aptitude cannot qualify to talk or write about the deep end where the likes of Prime Minister Tsvangirai have survived savage attacks by relentless political sharks that shall remain nameless.

It is dishonest on the part of Prof Moyo to pretend to be getting worried by the fact that the book is being serialised by South African newspapers, which he says is a “fitting confirmation of his (the PM’s) foreign driven politics.”
I know for certain that this book will soon be serialised by local newspapers. But it remains hollow and shallow for Moyo to describe a man who won a local election; a man whose support spreads from Kazungula to

Tamandayi as a man of “foreign driven politics.”
Moyo’s piece is curiously titled, “Expose on Tsvangirai’s political obituary.”
The only expose on anyone’s political obituary have been the WikiLeaks revelations that are rumoured to have signaled an end to the political careers of many in Zanu-PF such as Moyo himself, who have now taken to the pen to save their careers ahead of Zanu-PF’s mini-Congress in December.

Ironically, the good professor who in February 2008 claimed publicly that Tsvangirai had defeated President Mugabe, states in his Sunday Mail article that the Prime Minister lost the Presidential election of 2008.
What stinking hypocrisy!

Please, can the real Jonathan stand up?
And he appears to take offence in that the Prime Minister says in his book he responded to an advertisement in “The Rhodesia Herald.”
For God’s sake, that was the name of the newspaper then unless Moyo wants us to back-date the current name of the newspaper in the spirit of “patriotism.”

Finally, it is pertinent to note that this is Tsvangirai’s personal story. Instead of complaining about other people’s accounts of their lives, the likes of Jonathan Moyo should go ahead and tell their own story, including an explanation of how they attained the glorious status of “useful messenger”.

The fact remains that Moyo accepts the relevance of Morgan Tsvangirai in the country’s body politic.
Otherwise, why waste vital newspaper space over the years writing about a complete political write-off?
After everything has been said and done, at least Moyo read the book. And every man who tells his story is gratified when it has listeners and readers!

  • Luke Tamborinyoka is the Director of Communications and Spokesperson to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. He writes here in his personal capacity.

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